The interest in generating electricity from the flow of moving vehicles has existed for many decades. However, designing a device that provides a safe, efficient and comfortable means to convert the energy from moving vehicles to electricity has been elusive. The Highway Electric Power Generator offers a design that is unobtrusive to the motoring public, is efficient at converting the energy of moving vehicles to electricity, incorporates safety features for motorcycles, and does not result in a lack of control or comfort to those travelling over it.
Of the various common methods of generating electricity, much attention has been given to renewable sources of power. These include solar, wind and hydroelectric power to name a few. Solar power generation only works during the day and may be further affected by bad weather. Wind turbines require steady breezes to function and the size of the towers and blades can be problematic to the environment and costly to build. Hydroelectric plants must be built where enough water flows year round. Economies of scale usually demand large-scale construction to be effective and alters the environment by damming rivers.
The Highway Electric Power Generator provides a means to produce power 24 hours a day. It can be built to provide small amounts of power for special needs, or multiple units can be linked to produce greater quantities of power. For many years, our highways have served well for providing a means to travel from one place to another. Our roads have millions of vehicles travelling over them, and the energy from these moving vehicles can be effectively harnessed for producing electricity. Highways can be seen as rivers of metal, rubber and plastic whose flowing energy can be tapped for other purposes than to just move people, products or materials.
Devising a safe, simple and effective means to convert the energy of passing vehicles into electricity would assist in reducing the need for other electricity producing means while providing a cheap and useful source of electricity.
Other inventions have attempted to harness the energy of moving vehicles using treadle plates, pneumatic devices and complicated gearing mechanisms. Although these inventions capture some of the energy from passing vehicles and convert it into electricity, they all suffer from at least one of the following faults.
1) Some of the previous inventions stand in their ready state of operation as an obstacle protruding in the roadway. This is true for those devices using treadle plates. As motorists are generally accustomed to travelling on smooth roads, obstacles in the roadway would cause a driver to react instinctively by swerving or otherwise trying to avoid running over them. U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,687 is a prime example of such an obstacle.
2) In other previous inventions, the apparatus for contacting the vehicles as they pass are initially flush with the road surface but then give slightly, are depressed below the road level, or drop slightly in order to trigger a mechanism. This disruption to the vehicle would naturally lead to a sense of loss of control, unresponsive steering, poor road feel and an uncomfortable ride. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,418,542 and 4,434,374 depict mechanisms where vehicles will drop down as they pass over the devices.
3) Some of the previous inventions do not consider the variety of vehicles on the road ranging from light trailers to motorcycles to large 80,000 lbs. trucks. In the case of the inventions using treadle plates some motorcycles or trailers could end up on either side of the plate causing difficulty in balance or control. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,238,687 and 4,739,179 depict plates that protrude and drop potentially allowing a vehicle to straddle the plates with one axle (or wheel) on one side of the plate and the other axle or wheel on the other side of the plate. Motorcyclists may find these plates particularly difficult to traverse.
4) Some of the inventions do not consider other issues such as the need to back up over the devices or, in case of road repair, the need to divert traffic in the opposite direction from the normally prescribed flow of traffic.
All the foregoing faults can be overcome through the design of an energy capturing mechanism that is safe, simple and effectively transfers moving vehicle energy to a power generator. The mechanism includes at least one actuator button and one cocking arm that raises actuator arms through a grill in the roadway moments before a vehicle passes over the grill. The actuator arms are then depressed back under the road surface by the vehicle as it passes. These actuator arms are connected to a shaft that turns only in one direction and that shaft is connected to another shaft by a power transferring means. The second shaft may be directly connected to a turbine. In another embodiment a rotation regulating device (gearbox), speed brake and flywheel may be added to regulate the speed of a turbine. The invention""s design allows for singular connections between actuator arms and turbine shafts, or multiple actuator arms may be connected to a single turbine shaft.
Beginning at the top (or at road surface level), few parts of the invention are visible to motorists. Motorists will encounter the vehicle sensing device. This device includes a long narrow apparatus (henceforth referred to as the xe2x80x9ctriggering barsxe2x80x9d) placed in a transverse manner across a portion of a lane of travel just barely above the road surface; a row of actuator buttons also placed in a transverse manner beyond the triggering bars; and past the buttons, a metal grill resembling a storm drain.
When depressed by a passing tire, the trigger bars displace a locking bar which in turn shifts the locking flap in a cocking arm below ground. In order for the device to activate, both trigger bars must be depressed at the same time. Furthermore electromagnetic sensor rings situated between the triggering bars, and embedded in the roadway, must acknowledge the mass of a vehicle passing over it and activate a locking mechanism. Therefore, even if two motorcycles engage the vehicle sensing device at the same time, the device will still not activate because the sensor did not register a vehicle passing over at the same time. The vehicle sensing device interacts with the cocking arms situated below the road surface to regulate activity between the actuator buttons and the actuator arms. The sensing device may include multiple rings that can also determine the direction of passing vehicles. With this capacity, the sensor may restrict the device from operating when vehicles are travelling in directions not prescribed for normal traffic flow. This may be true in circumstances requiring road repair, or for emergency vehicles traversing busy traffic areas. In one embodiment, multiple sensors may be substituted for the triggering bar mechanism.
The actuator buttons are circular and convex in shape, can be made of metal, ceramic, rubber or plastic, and will easily recede to the road level when depressed by passing vehicles. These buttons will appear similar to highway lane markers in use today. Each grill is about three to four feet wide and two to three feet long. In the preferred embodiment, these grills will be placed in a staggered arrangement, two in each lane of travel. The grill is placed level with the road surface and finished with a material or texture to approximate the road surface upon which it is placed.
Through the grill, actuator arms are raised and depressed by passing vehicles. The actuator buttons sit on small piston-like arms. When depressed, the buttons will cock the actuator arms up through the grill only moments before a vehicle passes over the grill, thus the driver of a vehicle passing over the grill will not see the actuator arm elevated. Further, the actuator arms operating through the grill never support the weight of the vehicles passing over them. The entire weight of the vehicle is borne by the grill. Therefore, vehicles passing over the device never experience any instability, loss of control or discomfort. After the vehicle has passed over the grill, the device will be left flat on the road surface and it will remain non-obstructive in appearance until the next vehicle comes along.
When these grills are placed in a staggered arrangement in the highway, an average car would activate the generating system four times and thus produce an efficient transfer of energy to the generator. By staggering the grills, at least three tires remain in contact with the normal surface and only one is in contact with the grill at any given moment. Furthermore, each tire will only trigger the actuator buttons and arms that are directly in front of the tire as it passes over the grill. By limiting the movement of actuators to only those actuators that are directly in the tires"" paths, energy is not wasted on other moving parts. In the case of large multi-axle vehicles, the mechanism allows for a tire to be simultaneously on the actuator button an on the actuator arm without breaking the device.
The actuator arms require very little pressure to depress them after being cocked. A ratchet means at one end of each actuator arm is connected to a perpendicular shaft running the width of the grill. The shaft will turn easily only in a clockwise direction when an actuator arm is depressed. At the end of the shaft, a power transferring means transfers that rotation of the actuator shaft to a turbine shaft onto which may be connected a flywheel, a gearbox, a speed brake, and a turbine for generating power.
The impact force of a vehicle""s tires against the actuator arms is affected by two factors. First, the weight borne by each tire traversing the grills will vary by the numerous types of vehicles in use today. Secondly, the speed of oncoming vehicles will also have an effect of impact force. A further consideration is to minimize the impact on the inertia of the passing vehicle. The ideal embodiment of the invention will place the device on downward sloping roadways including highway off-ramps, taking advantage of gravitational forces acting on vehicles passing over the device. The two factors just stated and the additional gravitational forces provide ample energy to efficiently turn the generating means without significantly reducing a vehicle""s momentum.
Furthermore, another consideration of vehicular flow involves the density of traffic flow. The inverse relationship between traffic density and speed results in more frequent impacts with lessor force on the actuator arm when the traffic flow is heavy; and less frequent impacts with more force when the flow is light. This activity will result in the turbine generator spinning at appropriate levels in either situation.
Various embodiments of the invention permit multiple actuator shafts to be connected to a single turbine shaft. The turbine shaft consists of a power transferring means (which may double as a flywheel) for capturing the rotational energy of the actuator shaft(s). The turbine shaft then enters a gearbox designed to optimize output shaft speeds and disengage the output shaft by means of a clutch should vehicular activity be insufficient to effectively generate power.
Within the gearbox, a means of measuring input shaft speeds will keep the output shaft to the turbine spinning at optimal levels and will activate the speed brake if speeds exceed optimal power generating rpm""s. The gearbox may also include a clutch for regulating output shaft speeds. This clutch may include a torque converter requiring a minimum input shaft speed before engaging the output shaft to the turbine. Somewhere along the output shaft yet before the turbine, a flywheel may be situated to encourage steady rotation of the output shaft.
The original design of the invention at the time the provisional application was filed included the opportunity for two wheeled vehicles to pass between the device or to ride over it with minimal disruption. To further regulate when the invention activates, within the last year a more effective means for safeguarding two wheeled vehicles passage over the invention has been developed. These safety features allow motorcycles to traverse the entire mechanism without activating the device.
Power generated from the Highway Electric Power Generator has various applications. The power generated may operate lights or other electrical devices directly, resulting in an independent electrical system. The power may be used to charge batteries; or, the power may be sold for public use through the electricity grid. The aforementioned invention should be placed in areas where adequate traffic flow occurs and where ice does not occur. The device will function in rainy conditions as drainage channels below the device will remove water as it filters through the actuator buttons and the actuator grill.